Inspired – but is your research idea novel?

When inspiration strikes for research, it can do so in different ways.

• You can have a sudden realisation about something in your practice – why are we doing it like this, wouldn’t it be better if we did things differently?
• You can be reading a journal and come across a potential new treatment – if this works there for these service users, I wonder what if it could work for mine?
• You can be talking to a colleague and realise you have overlapping remits and think – I wonder if we could work more efficiently together to deliver in a better way?
• You could be talking to a patient and something they say could strike a chord – I’ve never thought about it from that perspective before, I wonder how we could help?

Regardless of from where it comes, the inspiration for your research idea may first seem revolutionary – why are we doing things like this when perhaps we could do them better like that?  This is, of course, where research can come in and where the NIHR, as an applied funder of health and social care research, leads the way.

However, before you crack open an application form and start writing, there is something you must do first.  You must ensure that your idea is novel.  This, along with assessing whether the topic is a priority for funding, is the first check any funding panel will make when assessing applications.

So, where to start?

Read the rest of this blog from the NIHR Research Design Service to get their advice – https://www.rds-eastmidlands.nihr.ac.uk/inspired-but-is-your-research-idea-novel